The Goodbyes Book Review

I was provided with a review copy of this novel by Blue Moon Publishing via Netgalley. I'll begin by saying that I give this story 4 stars you can read on to find out why...

Webb Turner grew up in a seemingly idyllic Pennsylvanian town, tortured by a troubled household. His young life is turned upside down by the exciting, magnetic and wild girl next door Bree. They keep each other at arm's length their whole lives, however, dancing around the issue of their unresolved feelings while Bree's life steadily spirals out of control.

In the meantime, Webb's life is on a different trajectory. He escapes the small town to become a globetrotting rock music sensation, with a new romantic interest on his mind and the past left in the rear view mirror - until he hears that Bree is dying. This shocking news unleashes a torrent of unresolved angst that won't be dammed  until Webb drops everything and everybody mid-tour to undertake a dangerous drive through a blizzard to be by Bree's side, just for one last chance to say his final farewell.

This story definitely isn't your typical romance. A tale of unrequited love, missed moments and seemingly unbreakable bonds.

We begin in the year 2016 and Webb Turner is about to take part in yet another interview, part of being famous I suppose but then the radio host happens to mention Bree, a girl from back home, we see him agonising over something that appears to be part of his past, someone he left in that small town he grew up in.

Then Webb receives a phone call that he might have been expecting but doesn't make it any less shocking, Bree is dying. This leaves Webb with a decision, carry on with the bands tour or drop everything to say one final goodbye?

In this case he went with his heart over his head and embarks on a 200 mile road trip through a snow blizzard to see the woman who once inspired so many songs that he'd written.

Throughout the story we go back and forth between past and present. I liked this concept as we got plenty of detail on all characters involved within the novel. It made me appreciate why that bond between those two young people remained so strong despite Webb's shyness and Bree's more than erratic behaviour.

Covering subjects from poverty, drug addiction and child abuse in more than one form, Leslie managed to keep this story quite heart warming even when describing darker times. Webb throughout the whole book is on his own journey, you can see how he matures as the story progresses but you can also see how the events of his past shaped the man that he's become.

But sometimes what we perceive as love can really being masking something else, clinging to a feeling purely because you aren't ready to say the word goodbye, it just comes across as too final, especially for a person that has been a part of your life for so long, through the good and the bad.

I think what I got from The Goodbyes was a sense of hope and the feeling that everything does indeed happen for a reason. 

So what made me mark it down to 4 stars? Well although the story read well, the writing flowed and seemed almost poetic at times but I was left disappointed with the abrupt ending.  After such a build up I just expected more somehow. An epilogue perhaps to show just how those last decisions affected both Bree and Webb.

Overall it was a good read. Plenty of emotion and it certainly had me turning the pages. Recommended to lovers of YA and all those romantics out there.